serious human rights violations committed in of vaccines in certain areas was hindering the the country since 2003, were ongoing but no fight against the disease. cases were sent to trial. In December, an As of 31 December, a total of 514,271 appeal hearing before the special indictment vaccine doses against Covid-19 had been chamber was made public. It concerned administered and 346,000 people were fully three men charged with crimes against vaccinated (of an estimated population of 5 humanity for killings that took place in 2019 million). Priority for vaccination was given to in the Paoua sous-prefecture. The SCC health personnel and vulnerable people. announced that it had issued 25 arrest Vaccination was extended to the warrants. Only one of them was executed, administrative centres of prefectures from leading to the arrest in November of Hassan August. Bouba Ali, the minister for livestock and animal health. He was released several days 1. One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards: Justice in the Central later by defence and security forces without African Republic (Index: AFR 19/5038/2021), 8 December any authorization from the judges.1 In May, the government set up a Commission of Inquiry following allegations CHAD by the UN of violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties Republic of Chad since the beginning of the CPC offensive. In Head of state: Mahamat Idriss Déby (replaced Idriss October the minister of justice presented the Déby Itno in April) results of this investigation, in which the Head of government: Albert Pahimi Padacké (position authorities acknowledged certain allegations created in April) against national forces and its allies, and the majority of allegations made against armed Repression of government critics continued; groups. The report was not made public and the authorities arbitrarily detained human the next steps were not known. rights defenders and civil society activists RIGHT TO FOOD AND RIGHT TO HEALTH and violated the right to freedom of expression. Some protests were banned and According to the UN Food and Agriculture security forces used excessive force against Organization, the number of people in the peaceful protesters defying the ban. country facing acute food insecurity Violence and discrimination against women increased from 1.9 million to 2.29 million and girls persisted. Access to food and during the first half of the year, exacerbated healthcare remained precarious for a large by the deterioration in security. According to part of the population. UNICEF, in July at least 80,000 children BACKGROUND under five were at risk of acute malnutrition, an increase of 29% from previous projections In the run-up to the 11 April presidential for 2021, and nationwide 40% of children elections, a platform called Wakit Tama (“the under five were already chronically time has come”), made up of opposition malnourished. parties, unions and NGOs, mobilized to According to the WHO and several NGOs, protest against the electoral process, which health centres, especially outside the capital, they considered to be non-transparent and lacked qualified medical personnel as well as non-inclusive. From April a Chadian armed essential medicines and equipment. Several group based in Libya – the Front pour health centres were looted of drugs and other l'alternance et la concorde au Tchad (FACT) goods during the offensive in January, – carried out several attacks in the north and aggravating an already dire situation. west of the country. Before the official According to the WHO, despite a decline in announcement by the electoral commission measles infections in 2021, the unavailability of the re-election of President Idriss Déby Amnesty International Report 2021/22 120